What emotions is this person feeling?
War is Hell
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Bright emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Quiet emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Heavy emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Sombre emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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War is Hell
Date
1965
Description
Creator of the image: Horst Faas
Date of the image creation: 1965
Medium of the image: Photograph
Person depicted: Larry Wayne Chaffin
German photographer Horst Fass (1933–2012) spent much of the Vietnam War as a photo-journalist. As a chief photographer for Associated Press, he published some of the most infamous images of the war, including the summary execution of a Vietcong soldier and the horrific ‘napalm girl’ image.
Fass published the ‘War is Hell’ image in 1965 without knowing the identity of the young man. According to Fass’s notes: ‘the unidentified Army soldier picture was shot June 18, 1965, and the soldier was with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Battalion on defense duty at Phouc Vinh airstrip in South Vietnam’. Later, the family of Larry Wayne Chaffin claimed that the man in the photograph was their father. All of Fass’s details match up with Chaffin’s war-record. Like many veterans, Chaffin struggled upon returning from the war, and he died in 1985 at age 39 from complications due to diabetes. His family is convinced that his condition was a result of his exposure to Agent Orange.
Fass’s image of Chaffin has since become iconic. It is full of irony. The bright, handsome young man smiles up at the camera, but he looks out from under a helmet that has the phrase 'WAR IS HELL' scrawled in capital letters on it. This caption recontextualizes the soldier’s facial expression, with the apparent sanguine innocence qualified by the horror that he has witnessed.
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